Xi vows to 'reaffirm' China'scommitment to women's rights

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks Sunday at a U.N. meeting on gender equality.

Photo: Bryan R. Smith, FRE

UNITED NATIONS - President Xi Jinping of China, under pressure over the jailing of women's rights activists, promised Sunday to "reaffirm our commitment to gender equality and women's development," as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations gently reminded world leaders to protect "human rights defenders."

The remarks came at a conference of global leaders on the 20th anniversary of a landmark U.N. summit meeting in Beijing, where world leaders had promised to change their laws and practices to advance gender equality.

China, as host of that 1995 conference, jointly hosted Sunday's meeting, which enabled Xi, analysts said, to highlight his country's ascendancy on the world stage. Yet the gathering has also exposed tensions between China and the United States on human rights issues, with the U.S. ambassador, Samantha Power, showcasing a campaign to draw attention to political prisoners, including those in China, in the run-up to the event.

The organizer of the conference, U.N. Women, said the event was aimed at extracting specific commitments from presidents and prime ministers, and all made promises of various sorts.

But President Simonetta Sommaruga of Switzerland noted that 20 years after the promises that were made in Beijing, "women face reprisals" in some countries for daring to demand their rights.

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya said his country would do more to fulfill its national policy to prevent domestic violence. Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan, admitted that combating violence against women "requires an attitudinal shift."

His country's most famous young woman, Malala Yousufzai, was also in New York, and Saturday night she chided world leaders for squandering their resources on arms, instead of using them for schools.

"It's not that there's lack of money in the world," Yousufzai, an activist for girls' education who was shot in 2012 after she defied the Taliban, said to great applause at a Central Park concert. "We have billions and trillions of dollars. Where the money goes is to military things that are not useful to society."

President Barack Obama did not attend the conference, although Power sat at the U.S. table during Xi's remarks.

Later, the White House released a statement detailing the Obama administration's commitment to gender equality, including laws that ensure new protections for survivors of violence against women and expanding access to women's health care, including reproductive services.

"In too many places," the statement said, "from China to Egypt, from Russia to Venezuela - women have been swept up in repressive crackdowns on civil society, and deprived of their universal rights and fundamental freedoms."

Obama made his sharpest remarks about women's equality in the General Assembly hall later in the day. Speaking at a session devoted to a new set of development goals, he said broadening opportunities for women and girls was central to a country's development, and in comments that could irk some of his most vital allies, including Saudi Arabia, he took aim at cultural justifications offered for contentious issues such as child marriage.

"I do not have patience for the excuse that well, we have our own way of doing things," he said.